Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Good Business: Leadership, Flow, and the Making of Meaning. New York: Viking, 2003.

Marcus Buckingham and Curt Coffman, First, Break All the Rules: What the World’s Greatest Managers Do Differently. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999.

I described seven qualities of conscious business, qualities that support an extraordinary business organization and an extraordinary life: unconditional responsibility, essential integrity, ontological humility, authentic communication, constructive negotiation, impeccable coordination, and emotional mastery.

The game has clear boundaries. Inside, there are risk, challenge, and drama; outside, security, ease, and calm. When playing a game we can feel the “danger” of losing, while knowing that we are totally “safe.” In the game, we face obstacles that test our mettle and push us to perform at our best. We are at the edge. If we slip, we lose. The relaxat

As the Zen masters say, “Die before you die, so you can truly live.”

The argument for a spiritual view of business finds support from the great advocate of laissez-faire economics, Adam Smith. The eighteenth century ethics professor argued that businesspeople must concern themselves with other people’s welfare. It is not about enlightenment, but simply good business practice. “The most apt to prevail [in the marketp

In Good Business, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi found that what distinguished extraordinary leaders, and what enabled them to build extraordinary organizations, was “soul.” I find his clear words worthy of quoting in full.

The same happens with profits. The worst way to be profitable is to focus on profits. Profits are a consequence of customer care, employee engagement, enlightened leadership, and service orientation: of successful business strategies and efficient business processes running on capable business infrastructures. The most powerful of these infrastruct

As Viktor Frankl remarked, “happiness cannot be attained by wanting to be happy—it must come as the unintended consequence of working for a goal greater than oneself.”96